A song of praise and confidence in God for the blessings of righteousness, judgments on their enemies, and favor to his people, and their chastisement, repentance, and hope, 1-21.
1 In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah:
"We have a strong city./
God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates/
so that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,/
whose mind is stayed on you,/
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,/
for in the LORD YAHWEH is everlasting strength.
5 For he brings down those who dwell on high./
The lofty city, he lays it low./
He lays it low, even to the ground./
He brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down,/
even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy."
7 The way of the just is uprightness./
You, most upright, weigh the path of the just.
8 Even in the way of your judgments,/
O LORD, we have waited for you./
The desire of our soul/
is to your name and to the remembrance of you.
9 With my soul I have desired you in the night./
Indeed, with my spirit within me I will seek you early./
For when your judgments are in the earth,/
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favor be shown to the wicked,/
yet he will not learn righteousness./
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly/
and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 LORD, when your hand is lifted up,/
they will not see./
But they shall see and be ashamed/
for their envy at the people./
Even the fire of your enemies shall devour them.
12 LORD, you will ordain peace for us,/
for you also have wrought all our works in us.
13 O LORD our God,/
other lords beside you have had dominion over us,/
but by you only we will make mention of your name.
14 They are dead, they shall not live./
They are deceased, they shall not rise./
Therefore, you have visited and destroyed them/
and made all their memory to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O LORD,/
you have increased the nation. You are glorified./
You have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 LORD, in trouble they have visited you./
They poured out a prayer/
when your chastening was upon them.
17 As a woman with child,/
who draws near the time of her delivery,/
is in pain and cries out in her pangs,/
so we have been in your sight, O LORD.
18 We have been with child. We have been in pain./
We have, it seems, brought forth wind./
We have not wrought any deliverance on the earth,/
neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead men shall live./
Together with my dead body they shall arise./
Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust,/
for your dew is as the dew of herbs,/
and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter into your chambers/
and shut your doors around you./
Hide yourself for a little while/
until the indignation has passed.
21 For behold, the LORD comes out of his place/
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity./
The earth shall also disclose her blood/
and shall no longer cover her slain.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 26[➚]
[v.11] - Reference, Hebrews 10:27.
[v.19] - Reference, Psalm 16:10; Hosea 6:2; 1st Corinthians 15:4.